"I have learned the secret..."

I googled the phrase "the secret to" and pulled up 43,100,000 results ranging from "the secret to raising smart kids" to "the secret to skinny" to "the secret of Google's success".

People, it seems, are into secrets. The classified how-tos of life that someone somewhere had, until now, been withholding. But thanks to the investigative perseverance of magazine editors all over the world, we now have access to them. About 1,950 years ago or so, there was another certain man, a writer of letters, who revealed to the greater public a secret he himself had uncovered.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes,

"I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

How exciting! Paul found the secret to contentment, to release from this weary life into one that is sure to offer satisfaction. But Paul tops the magazine writer's three step plans because he's only got one step.

1. Paul learned the secret: I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Jesus himself told his disciples,

"In the world you will have trouble."

And Paul, we know, had trouble. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote,

"To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world." 1 Corinthians 4:11-13

Here's my point. Paul learned thirst by being thirsty. He learned hunger by being hungry. And he learned contentment by recognizing that his situation was what God had ordained for him and that God was going to pull him through.

When Paul was called to become an apostle of Christ, the Lord said of him,

"This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Acts 9:15

And the same Paul wrote to the Corinthians in the same aforementioned letter,

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Contentment is a funny word because it means happy but it doesn't. It has no elation or excitement, no swelling to a crescendo in the heart. It simply is, it abides, steady and true. Moments before disclosing his secret, Paul commands the Philippians to rejoice and not to be anxious about anything. He commands these things because they are contrary to our natures and our habits. Contentment, likewise, is against our natures.

And that's why it must be something we learn. I always thought of this passage as if he was suddenly injected with a dose of grace that worked like local anesthesia, protecting him from the pain of circumstance. And I figured the anesthesia was the "I can do all things" part, like doctors calling orders during a code blue, we shoot up our prayers and we get insta-strength to collapse the temple on the philistines. (I'm mixing metaphors, sorry, but I hope you get the gist of my train of thought.) But it's more like physical therapy, I think, where you come and the doctor exercises you in a very specific way and it hurts but your muscles get stronger and eventually you've trained them to know what to do.

So after being hungry so many times, Paul learned how to be hungry and how to trust the Lord and depend on the Lord.

And that's the secret.